LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Midway Games Inc. plans to publish a "mature"-rated pro football video game with the kinds of violence and excess shunned by the National Football League, the company said on Thursday.

The game, called "Blitz: Playmakers," is being designed with the help of a writer from the now-canceled ESPN series "Playmakers," which the NFL condemned for its behind-the-scenes portraits of player drug use and mayhem.

Since the NFL granted an exclusive license to video games rival Electronic Arts Inc., Midway said, it can create its own football game that stretches the limits of what video game players have seen before from sports titles.

"No longer bound to the NFL license, there will be no league restrictions on content and gamers will finally experience what makes playing a football video game really fun: off-field controversies, dirty hits, excessive celebrations and much more," Midway marketing chief Steve Allison said in a statement.

"Blitz: Playmakers," featuring a fictional league and fictional teams and players, is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2005, a Midway spokesman said.